Hmmm so I am the Hungry Reader. The one who reads. The one who is constantly reading or wanting to read constantly. This blog is all about the books I have read, the ones that I am reading and gems that I plan to read in the future or whenever it arrives.

Natasha Badhwar’s writing is comfort food. It is the hug you have been waiting for but just don’t know it yet. It is the reassurance of a loved on that takes its own time to come but when it does, your heart is filled with warmth like none other. It is the hobby that becomes a passion and you cannot wait to get back to it at the end of the day. I hadn’t known of Natasha’s column (very famous by the way – appears in Mint Lounge every week) or of her before I started following her on Twitter (Thank God I did) and I couldn’t have been happier knowing she exists. She is there somewhere on the Internet, spreading kindness, wisdom and sometimes nothing but just telling us stories of her life and that’s what this book is about.

“My Daughters’ Mum” is a collection of her essays which have previously appeared in Mint (some of them I think) and again since I hadn’t read any, it was a unique experience for me and my heart. I’ve always believed that books and reading can connect you with people like no other and this is what happened to me as I turned the pages of Natasha’s book. I wept. I laughed. I nodded knowingly. I wanted to reach out to her and hug her tight. I wanted to tell her children that they are loved so much (I am sure they know it as well) and all I ended up doing was healing myself through her words.

We all carry burdens, of various kinds. They come in different shapes and are full of different things – some recognizable and some don’t. Natasha’s writing is raw and makes us see what we cannot see through her struggles – big or small and that is where the connect lies I suppose. She writes nonchalantly about her kids, her husband, her in-laws, her parents, about how she feels and what she thinks and how she also connects with the world at large. This sense of putting your heart out there and knowing that it is okay to do so filled me with awe. I am in awe of her because she shows her deepest scars, her fears and knows that that is the only way she can connect and know people better. For instance, when Sahar (her oldest) doesn’t know how to express her anger – its all there or for that matter when Naseem (her youngest) knows some things too well for a child her age – Natasha bares it all and that’s why I could feel the emotions I did.

My review is not doing justice to the book as it should. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the book to give you an idea of how brilliant it is and why you should read it. All I can say is that you should read it. It is the kind of book that deserves to be read by everyone. You will find your own comfort in its pages, just like I did. Thank you Natasha, for this.

I remember reading, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson with great trepidation. I thought I would get bored. I thought I would not be interested in it for long. I thought these things and a lot of other things before I invested time in the book. I loved the book at the end of it, so much so that I thought there was not any need to pick up anything on “Steve Jobs”, since this book was most comprehensive. Walter Isaacson does it again this time with “The Innovators”.

There have been countless books written on the digitized revolution and the Silicon Valley. Walter Isaacson’s book is different in the sense that he takes a complete look at the innovators, the geniuses, the hackers, and the geeks and what they did and did not do to get the revolution going. “The Innovators” is a book which looks at everything – right from the start, to the middle and the future of entrepreneurs and creative geniuses.

“The Innovators” tracks the stories from the 19th century – to Lovelace and Babbage to the Ethernet and Xerox, the Manhattan Project, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs of course and Steve Wozniak. He covers almost all of these people and how their creativity helped them harness not only their goals, but also the clear and visible difference brought in an entire culture of people.

The writing is crisp and easy to understand. There are parts that do drag but one can overlook them in the larger scheme of the theme and essence of the book. The book is written with the view point of ideas. That is the core and essence of the book. The people of course play a very important role, but it is the ideas that take center-stage in a book like this.

Mr. Isaacson tells the story of individuals with brilliant ideas. There is sometimes collaboration of people, sometimes when people work on their own and yet at the end of it all, the reader is left with more clarity on them and the various eras in which different ideas were shaped and formed. One can then use the cliché and say then that the book is “well-researched”. The layout and the hyper-narration at times is perfect. The systematic building of concepts only lends to the overall effect of the book.

At some point, I thought that maybe some people were not included which could have been and some which perhaps did not need inclusion. The narrative is very strong and maybe again why one can see why the author could not have included everyone in the book.

“The Innovators” is one of those books that also help us to some extent see what technology could mean in the future and its implications. Overall, I would say that even if you are not a technology buff the book will appeal to you only from the point of view of knowing more about these people and the ideas they thought of. I highly recommend this one.

I had heard a lot about his new book from my friends. Though I sort of like Q and A and had not read Six Suspects, I thought of trying this one. I mean, it is good to get away from literary fiction once in a while and reading some pop fiction as well. It doesn’t hurt and at the same time I could observe a writer’s style and technique, which I sort of liked in Q and A. Though I must say that I did not like the movie Slumdog Millionaire however that is another story altogether.

“The Accidental Apprentice” is meant to read like a pot-boiler, thriller, and everything else rolled into one and it does. The book showed promise at the prologue. The story seemed to me like something out of the T.V. Show, “The Apprentice” however it was not that. “The Accidental Apprentice” is about Sapna Sinha, a middle-class working girl from Delhi, who by chance (or is it?) meets Vinay Mohan Acharya, one of India’s richest men who makes her an offer which she does not think is viable to begin with. However with her personal problems getting the better of her, she takes up the offer and has to prove herself through seven tests from the “textbook of life” (as the book states) or the deal is off.

The reader is then witness to the seven tests and the ways in which Sapna is tested, what qualities are needed to become the CEO of Acharya’s company. That is the deal, and then of course there is more to what meets the eye. The book also looks at Sapna’s life – her family, the tragedy in her life and speaks of the people close to her. The book ends on a surprising note though. It took me a long time to get through this one. The seven tests are taken from current affairs and somewhere down the line lose their touch. They almost become predictable and the writing cannot do much to save it. I had enjoyed Q and A to some extent and was sort of expecting the same from The Accidental Apprentice, given the similarity of the plot. In the former it was questions at a game show and the later had seven tests of life.

I guess I should not have tried to expect anything from the book. The plot is racy for sure but loses the reader somewhere down the line. It took me some time to finish reading this one. I did not struggle with it; however it was not an easy read either after the first one hundred and seventy five pages. I had to keep myself going only to reach the end and expect something very far-fetched. “The Accidental Apprentice” is only recommended to those who have not read any of Vikas Swarup’s books and that too only depends if they would like to read it after going through the prologue. I gave it a 3-star only because of the writing in bits and parts that is effective and the overall plot, which definitely had more potential.